Pay Per Action

Pay Per Action advertising is a highly effective means for driving leads to your business. With Pay Per Action you pay only when an ad converts to a lead. Pay Per Action can be referred to as CPA, or Cost Per Action.

The History Behind Pay Per Action

Pay Per Action was not the first payment model for buying online ad space. Ad networks started with Pay Per Impression. Though it still exists today, pay per impression is the least advertiser-friendly payment model, requiring advertisers to pay per 1000 impressions in which their ad was displayed. There is actually no guarantee that the target consumer actually viewed the ad.

Pay Per Click was the answer to this, requiring advertisers to pay each time a user clicked on the ad. Pay Per Click or PPC is the main driver behind ad space on search engines, like Google. This payment model in search engines make sense, as their ultimate goal is to drive consumers from their search engine to the end website that will answer their question. They are not focused on conversions for the advertiser.

Pay Per Action, on the other hand, truly has the advertiser’s goals in mind. By paying per conversion you can increase your exposure while reducing your overall cost. One unique benefit is that you can have limitless impressions to help build your brand, while you only pay for the leads that convert to sales. Payment can vary depending on the network used, ranging from a flat fee to a percentage of the sale.

Pay Per Action Drives Affiliate Programs

One of the most popular implementations of a CPA strategy is in affiliate marketing. Affiliate networks all advertisers to pay publishers per conversion when that publisher sends leads or sales to the advertiser.

In the examples below, we’ll look at 2 separate implementations of cost per action on the same affiliate network.

First, 1 Sale A Day offers a 3-7% commission on the sale for publishers who send leads to 1 Sale A Day that convert to sales.

Second, Media Temple offers a flat rate of $80 to publishers who send leads to Media Temple that convert to subscriptions.

Measurement & Growth

As with any online marketing initiative, it’s important to measure and grow your campaigns with Pay Per Action. First, to calculate your cost, simply divide overall cost by the number of acquisitions.

Next, to determine success, you can measure your CPA campaigns against traditional Pay Per Click or Pay Per Impression strategies. This is called Effective Pay Per Action (or EPPA). Traditionally, Pay Per Action will show more interest than PPC, which is just paying for each click. However, the cost per action will likely be higher than the cost per click. Cost Per Impressions often results in paying for each 1000 impressions. Generally, Cost Per Click will be a better option than Cost Per Impression. Still, Cost Per Action drives more growth by delivering qualified, convertible leads.

As with all of our service offerings, WMDI offers you a full reporting package to gauge the success of your Pay Per Action campaigns.

Partner with WMDI

Your search for a CPA or Pay Per Action provider should end with us. Our experts will connect you with our network of publishers to find the ideal niche in your budget, using the cost per action model. You can then utilize those publishers to drive leads and sales.